The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination in air transportation by domestic and foreign air carriers against qualified individuals with physical or mental impairments. It applies only to air carriers that provide regularly scheduled services for hire to the public. Requirements address a wide range of issues including boarding assistance and certain accessibility features in newly built aircraft and new or altered airport facilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination in service and employment opportunities against qualified individuals with physical or mental impairments. It consists of five parts:

Title I prohibits employers, including cities and towns, from discriminating against qualified job applicants and workers who are or who become disabled. The law covers all aspects of employment including the application process and hiring, training, compensation, advancement, and any other employment term, condition, or privilege.

Title II prohibits state and local governments from discriminating against disabled persons in their programs and activities. Title II also sets forth the applicable structural accessibility requirements for public entities.

Title III prohibits private enterprises who provide public accommodations and services (e.g., hotels, restaurants, and transit systems) from denying goods, services and programs to people based on their disabilities. Title III also sets forth the applicable structural accessibility requirements for private entities.

Title IV makes available telecommunications devices and services for the hearing and speech impaired. These regulations spell out certain mandatory minimum standards telephone companies must maintain to be in compliance with the ADA.

Title V includes some miscellaneous provisions that relate to the construction and application of the ADA, including alternative dispute resolution.

This is a place to grow a community on accessible travel. This a place to share your stories, your experiences, tips and tricks, and to help others with disabilities to travel the world with a little less anxiety and frustration.

Over the years I have traveled to a lot of different places with my family. My father is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and gets around mostly in a power chair making travel a little more challenging. Most destinations we visit are pretty easy to navigate taking into account for accessibility Last year I moved to New York City to attend graduate school at Parsons. My family comes to visit me and the Big Apple quite often but I have found that New York City needs much more planning and research on accesible venues in order to make the trip enjoyable. Many subway stations, though state accessible, are not. Many restaurants do have lifts but, it takes twenty minutes for them to clear the tables and chairs from in front of it and another twenty before you get to your seat. What if you want to see something else besides Times Square or Central Park? What if you want to visit The VIllage? Or Lower East Side? We have to worry about uneven subway platforms and sidewalks. Where are accessible restaurants and restrooms located?

I am approaching my thesis year at Parsons and would really like to approach a problem that is personal for me. I think there is a great need for these kind of resources to be organized and available to the disabled community.

I am reaching out to you guys to hopefully get some insight and advice on what you would like to see in a site as far as resources and features.

Right now I am designing a site that will contain aggregated yelp and Zagat like reviews but focusing on the sites disabled user reviews in the hierarchy. I am including a blog of my personal experiences traveling with my father as well as a user forum for discussion. I will be integrating an open source google maps feature where people can collaborate on their routes of travel throughout cities giving others tips and advice on what streets, sidewalks, buses, and trains to avoid. There will also be some form of itinerary list where users can login and store and share their itinerary for their trip including reviews on establishments, routes used, and tips and advice. The site will have a full social integration as well, things like Facebook, twitter, instagram, and pinterest.

So, this is not only an idea for solely the disabled but also for the those who support and care for them.

I think we all have a lot to learn from each other and would really love your input!

US TSA Web Pages and Cares Line for travelers with disabilities and medical conditio

The US TSA (U S Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration) maintains a number of pages of interest to those of us who must travel with medicines, medical devices, etc. starting with this page:

Helpful information for those of us who must travel with devices, quantities of medications beyond that allowed by the zip closure "Freedom baggie", etc. for those traveling within the US and visiting the US. We print out copies of the relevant pages so we ca avoid arguing with uninformed TSA agents at airports.

They also maintain a US toll-free TSA Cares Line: 1-855-787-2227:

Quote:

TSA Cares Help Line

TSA Cares is a helpline to assist travelers with disabilities and medical conditions. TSA recommends that passengers call 72 hours ahead of travel to for information about what to expect during screening.

Travelers may call TSA Cares toll free at 1-855-787-2227 prior to traveling with questions about screening policies, procedures and what to expect at the security checkpoint. TSA Cares will serve as an additional, dedicated resource specifically for passengers with disabilities, medical conditions or other circumstances or their loved ones who want to prepare for the screening process prior to flying.

The hours of operation for the TSA Cares helpline are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. – 11 p.m. EST and weekends and Holidays 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. EST. Travelers who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to contact TSA Cares or can e-mail TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov.

When a passenger with a disability or medical condition calls TSA Cares, a representative will provide assistance, either with information about screening that is relevant to the passenger’s specific disability or medical condition, or the passenger may be referred to disability experts at TSA.

TSA recommends that passengers call approximately 72 hours ahead of travel so that TSA Cares has the opportunity to coordinate checkpoint support with a TSA Customer Service Manager located at the airport when necessary.

Helpful information for those of us who must travel with devices, quantities of medications beyond that allowed by the zip closure "Freedom baggie", etc. for those traveling within the US and visiting the US. We print out copies of the relevant pages so we ca avoid arguing with uninformed TSA agents at airports.

They also maintain a US toll-free TSA Cares Line: 1-855-787-2227:

If you depart from PHL's international terminal and you get the same TSA newbie that we got, all the pages in the world won't give that guy a clue.

Be prepared with the info from the link, and insist on a supervisor is my policy.

("No, under no circumstances are you going to open that bottle of liquid medication, prescription medication, and insert your test strip.")

● www.disabledtravelers.com
Listings of tour operators, cruise lines, travel agents who work with travelers with disabilities or specail needs; many other listings to airline policies, special interest products, accessible tours and cruises.

If you depart from PHL's international terminal and you get the same TSA newbie that we got, all the pages in the world won't give that guy a clue.

Be prepared with the info from the link, and insist on a supervisor is my policy.

("No, under no circumstances are you going to open that bottle of liquid medication, prescription medication, and insert your test strip.")

Yes, there are some genuinely clueless people out there. The worst ever in my book was the guy at SLC who told an older female passenger with an infusion pump (chemotherapy for her cancer) she must stop the pump and remove the batteries for inspection. Amazingly, the passenger complied - if it had been me asked to remove batteries from an infusion or insulin pump the supervisor would have heard my shout even in the airport restaurant or TSA offices in the other terminal building.

Hope it is OK that I share a website I have been working on. I am a triple amputee, wheelchair user, and very frequent flyer. I've had to answer most questions about travel and the accessibility of destinations myself, so I've decided to share it here: